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Shell LiveWIRE Smarter Future Programme

Do you have a smart business idea that will help meet the needs of our growing population?

By 2050, our planet could be home to more than 9 billion people with 75% living in cities – up from 50% today. More people will enjoy higher living standards, gaining access to modern transportation, reliable energy, cleaner water, or buy their first mobile, refrigerator or car.

How will society manage this? Ensuring sufficient supply of resources will pose considerable challenges. At the same time it presents a fantastic opportunity for the next generation of UK entrepreneurs.

The Shell LiveWIRE Smarter Future programme consists of:

Start-up funding of £5,000 to one monthly winner

Access to exclusive Shell events and workshops

The opportunity to be considered for the annual £25,000 Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Shell launched the Shell LiveWIRE Smarter Future Programme to support young, innovative entrepreneurs like you to meet the ever-increasing energy and resource needs of a fast-growing population.

The award is open to any entrepreneur aged 16-30
who has been trading for less than a year, or is looking to start trading in
the next 12 months, and has an idea that addresses the UK's future
transport, energy, or natural resource challenges, or makes our urban
environments cleaner and more sustainable places to work and live in. Together,
we can build a Smarter Future.

Generation Y has often been misunderstood. Sometimes perceived as being ‘soft’ , they’ve been accused of being unequipped for adulthood because they perhaps never had to use a handsaw or maybe can’t identify an answering machine if you put it in front of them.

Why do some companies succeed where others fail? Michael Murray, from NVP Energy, the Shell Springboard 2016 regional winner, talks about his entrepreneurial journey and gives his top-tips for new businesses.

Fish feces is full of nutrients – in particular, it’s high in ammonia, which is converted into nitrogen and is very useful for plants. From using fish feces as nutrients for our plants, to recirculating the water in our aquaponics system, we work on the principle that waste never truly gets ‘thrown away’.

Business in the low-carbon and sustainability sectors in particular face unique challenges and need funding partners that take this into account. That’s why this year, we launched the Access to Finance Navigator – an interactive, digital database to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) identify funding opportunities in the low-carbon, cleantech and sustainability sectors.